


Fear-Based Response

by caliecat



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Episode Related, Gen, POV, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-20
Updated: 2011-05-20
Packaged: 2017-10-19 15:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caliecat/pseuds/caliecat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jenna Kaye thought nothing could ever scare Steve McGarrett. She was wrong.</p><p>Episode tag to 1.23, Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear-Based Response

Jenna is a good analyst. Sure, she's young and if she had a dime for every time someone asked what a little girl like her was doing in the CIA she'd be a millionaire by now. But she's smart and determined, blessed with a quick mind and trained by the best in the world.

And she knows how to read people.

The first time she meets Steve McGarrett she realizes he's not afraid of anything; not the Governor or the CIA Director, not Victor Hesse or Wo Fat, and certainly not her desperate schoolyard bluffs. He stands his ground in the face of her threats, doesn't take her bullshit, rips right through her cover story and quickly seizes control, turning the tables around on her until she feels like she's twelve years old again.

He even discusses the murders of his parents coolly and dispassionately, only his clenched jaw and widened eyes betraying his emotion. She's met men like him before, hard and tough men who came in from the field after long years of working undercover, their inner cores walled off beneath protective shells and their souls broken by everything they'd seen and done.

It takes all of her courage not to crumble when he confronts her and destroys her own carefully-constructed defenses, dragging the ugly truth of her past into the daylight. She's ashamed of her tears as she chokes out the story of her one bad call, the lapse in judgment that killed her team, shattered her confidence and broke her heart.

But at least he listens.

And no matter what brought her to him initially, after knowing him for just one day she craves nothing more than his respect.

~~~~~~~

When Danny goes down she's as stunned as the rest of them and does everything she can to help. It happens so fast she barely registers the change in Steve, the instant he transforms from controlled to terrified, on the verge of tears himself as he clutches Danny's shoulder and begs him to stay conscious. He surprises her by staying with Danny and abandoning the casework to his team, phoning in from the hospital for updates, his voice tight and urgent as the clock runs down.

She pushes herself to work at lightening-speed, drawing on all of her training and knowledge to sift through the data, connect the dots and find the answer before it's too late. Kono and Chin treat her like a professional, letting her run the scene and then trusting her conclusion without question. Her voice is steady and confident when she makes the call to Steve but inside she's shaking with fear, knowing a life hangs in the balance and hoping she hasn't screwed up again.

At the hospital, after the crisis has passed, Steve's back in mission-mode again, focused and intense, but his relief at Danny's response to the drugs is palpable. A huge weight slips off her shoulders when he tells her she was right about the sarin. Then he assigns her another task and she's so grateful for the chance to contribute she starts babbling like an idiot, tripping over her words, eager and breathless, until he stops her and thanks her for saving Danny's life, his entire heart in his eyes as they lock on to hers.

Something twisted and painful inside her uncoils at his quiet words and soft, vulnerable half-grin. She's touched to see how much this means to him, senses how difficult it was to acknowledge and wonders if she was wrong, if maybe her initial assessment of him was clouded by her own personal history and emotion.

That night, after she crashes down from her adrenaline high and falls into bed exhausted, the day's events still spinning through her head, she imagines a little girl hugging her dad again.

And for the first time since Macau, she wonders if she might be wrong about herself, as well.

~~~~~~~

She's at Five-0 the next morning when Danny strolls in with a huge grin and flailing hands, loose and relaxed and tie-less. 

He reaches out to Chin and Kono and pulls them in for a hug, their incandescent smiles lighting up the room, then walks over and thanks her for saving his life, his eyes sparkling with warmth and friendship. When she asks for her own hug she hears herself giggling, her voice high and girlish and _unprofessional_ but she doesn't care, her gratitude at the acceptance he's offering sweeping away her self-consciousness.

Nothing could ever replace the lives lost on her watch three years ago, but something broken deep within her starts to heal the instant he envelops her in his strong arms. He feels solid and warm and _alive_ against her and she's giddy with the knowledge that she helped make that possible.

Then Steve approaches from his office, Danny releases her and follows him a few steps away from the center of the room. She starts to head back to her own office before some instinct compels her to turn and watch their reunion.

From her vantage point, half-hidden in the doorway, she observes the play of emotions on Steve's face—amusement, confusion, a flash of hurt, surprise—and hears him stumble over his words before he grins with pure joy and wraps his arms around Danny. He closes his eyes with a look of bliss and tightens the embrace, murmurs low and soft into the curve of Danny's shoulder and holds on like he'll never let go.

Jenna knows how to read people, and she recognizes love when she sees it.

With tears prickling her eyes, she fingers the heart on the chain around her neck and remembers the last time someone looked at her that way. It's a bittersweet memory, tinged with sadness and longing and regret, but happiness, too, and she smiles with the hope that she might find such joy again in her life, and that they might find it in theirs.

Until Sang Min bursts through the glass doors and they break apart, pulling their weapons in sync as Chin and Kono jump in from the sides to flank them. She ducks out from the doorway, part of the team now, her heart pounding and her nerves on fire, battle-ready and awaiting orders. 

Steve has transformed again, steeled against this new threat, focused and intense and intimidating. But she doesn't need algorithms and spreadsheets to predict the outcome this time. She knows everything will be fine. 

Because Danny is right at his side, where he belongs. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated.


End file.
